Fire escape



(No Model.) I 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

H. A. LEE.

FIRE ESCAPE,

N0. 283,62Q. Patented Aug. 21,1883.

Fyl

' liar Ruhr ifilyees'ses H. A. LEE. FIRE ESCAPE.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

No. 283,620. Patented Aug. 21, 1883.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY A. LEE, on NEW YORK, r. Y.

F! RE-ESCAPE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 283,620, dated August 21, 1883.

Application filed MarchlO, use. (No model.)

To 6015 whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY A. LEE, of New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Fire-Escapes, of which the fllowing is a specification.

The object of my improvement is to produce a f re-escapewhich will be simple, strong, and cheap, which will not disfigure a building to which it may be applied, and which withal maybe used with ease and safety not only by occupants of the building, but by persons desiring to provide for their escape.

The improvement consists in certain devices whereby these ends are attained.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front view of a building on which is used a fire-escape embodying myimprovement. Fig.

2 is a side view of the same, and Fig. 3 is an enlarged side view of a portion of the building and fire-escape.

Similar letters of reference designate corresponding parts inall the figures.

The building A is of ordinary construction.

B designates bars,'which may be made of 1 iron and of plain or ornamental configuration.

As here shown they extend in front of the windows and close to the sills of the windows. They are to be strongly secured in place, and for this purpose may be fastened to the jambs of the windows, and also by a number of posts, a, to the sills. j

0 designatesladders, which may be of any suitable material, although I prefer to make their rails of tubular iron and their rungs of angle iron. These ladders are provided with hooks b, of such character that they may be securely engaged with the bars B. These hooks are arranged at aconsiderable distance from the ends of the rails of the ladders, and they may extend beyond the rails. Each ladder may have several pairs of these hooks, so as to adapt them to use upon buildings where the windows are arranged at difi'erent distances apart in ayertical direction. The hooks will preferably extend from the ladders only far enough to engage with the bars. As the rails of the ladders are farther apart at the lower end than at the upper end, the rails of the upper ladder will extend outside the rails of the lower ladder, wherefore the ladders are steadied laterally, so that they form a continuous line of ladders. These ladders may be used by the occupants of a building standing upon the sills of their windows and placing the ladders so as to gain access to an upused by firemen or others from the street. In the latter case a ladder will first be hooked onto the bars of a lower row of windows;- then the user may ascend this ladder, and

while standing on. the sill of the adjacent window, with the body resting against the upper part of the ladder, as a brace to steady him, may engage a second ladder with the bar of an upper story, and so on. of the ladders above the hooks also affords a means which may be grasped by the hands to facilitate the passage from the sills to the ladders.

The bars might be arranged to extend be tween or below the windows instead of across them, if desirable, and a single bar might be extended across or below several windows.

The bars may be provided with hooks to engage with the ladder-rungs, for the purpose of affording additional security.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination, with a building, of bars attached thereto, so as to occupy positions adjacent to the window-sills, and ladders provided with hooks at such distances from their upper ends that when the hooks are engaged with said bars the side rails of the ladders will project a considerable distance above the window-sills, so that they'can be grasped by persons descending the ladders, substantially as described.

2. The combination of a number of fire-escape ladders provided at a distance from their ends with hooks adapted to engage with bars secured to the wall of a building, and each having its side rails wider apart at the bottom than the top, so that the side rails at the lower end of each ladder will fit outside the side rails at the upper end of a lower ladder, substantially as described.

3. The combination, with a building and per or a lower floor, or the ladders may be The extension bars attached thereto, so as to occupy posidistances apart in a vertical direction, subtions adjacent to the window-si11s, of a numstantially as described. her of ladders, each having two or more pairs of hooks at different distances from its upper HEB R1 5 end, and adapted to engage with said bars, Witnesses:

whereby the ladders are adapted to build T. J. KEANE,

ings having the windows arranged at different JAMES R. BOWEN. 

